Species of Bovine Animals. 



6547 



Papilio allied to P. Sarpedon, which I found at Macassar, is also here, and two or three 

 other species which I have not yet been able to capture." 



Part I. of the fifth volume of the new series of the Society's ' Transactions * was 

 announced as pnblished. — H. S. 



Notice of the Various Species of Bovine Animals. By the Editor of 



the 6 Indian Field.' 

 (Continued from p. 6421.) 



The excessive vagueness of most notices of wild or little known 

 cattle is extremely perplexing to the naturalist, who would endeavour 

 to make some meaning out of them. Thus it is difficult to compre- 

 hend what animal can be meant by the " gyall" of Bishop Heber's 

 : Journal,' briefly noticed, and very rudely figured as having been seen 

 by that prelate in the Governor's park in Ceylon ; and equally difficult 

 is it to understand what the following passage alludes to, in Mrs. 

 Graham's work : — At the Governor's house in Ceylon, this lady "saw, 

 feeding by himself, an animal no less beautiful than terrible — the wild 

 bull, whose milk-white hide is adorned with a black flowing mane !" 

 Can there be such a creature ? 



" In the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society,' vol. xvi., p. 706, Mr. B. H. 

 Hodgson thus notifies the gaour — " Bos Gaurus, vel ? cavifrons. The 

 Gaur or Gauri gau. Caesar's wild bull of Europe [the urus !], and 

 Aristotle's of Persia, are two other species of Bibos or of Gavceus, 

 which, could we test them, might be respectively called ' classicus et 

 Aristotelis.' [The urus is surely sufficiently made out !] The gaurs," 

 he adds, c< inhabit the primitive forests of India generally, under the 

 great ranges of mountains, such as the sub- Himalayas, the Vindhias, 

 the Sathpuras, the Ghats eastern and western, and their links with 

 the Vindhias, and with the Nilgiris. Beyond the Brahmaputra Bibos 

 is replaced by Gavceus [quite a mistake, even if the types could be ac- 

 cepted as sufficiently different, in which case the banteng must needs 

 be acknowledged as a third type, about as well marked as either of 

 the others, or at least it certainly cannot be ranged with one rather 

 than with the other !], of which there would seem to be two species 

 in the Indo-Chinese countries, one of them extending to Ceylon, if the 

 Lanka wild ox be not rather a Bibos ; 1 suspect," continues Mr. Hodg- 

 son, " there will prove to be at least two species of Bibos, as of Rusa, 

 inhabitants of India, between the Cape (Comorin) and the sub-Hima- 

 layas, or B. Gaurus and B. cavifrons." 



